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Welcome to my blog. I am honored to have you visit. I hope you'll find my articles a blessing. I welcome your input and especially comments and questions.

I write as a Christian from Jerusalem, Israel about Biblical subjects.

I am particularly interested in the subjects of children, families, women's issues, corporal punishment, science and nature as these subjects relate to the Holy Scriptures.

For more information, see my website: www.biblechild.com

With every good wish - Samuel Martin

Monday, October 13, 2014

A Trip Down A River to the Source – Part Four

A Trip Down A River to the Source –
Part Four

So, it is easy
to see how in an environment of a growing animal herd in an area where you do
not have much water like in Jerusalem and the hill country of Ephraim just to
the north of Jerusalem where Abraham was living, strife between herders
competing for scarce resources for their animals would not be unusual.

So Lot made a
decision.

"And Lot lifted
up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere
like the garden of the Lord,
like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah.)" (Genesis 13:10 ESV)

This is an important
text for a number of reasons. First, the region of the Jordan Valley was at
that time relatively speaking "well watered" and was a paradise,
"like the Garden of the LORD (Eden)" and very importantly "like
the land of Egypt."

Now why is the
mentioning of that region being like the Garden of Eden and like the country of
Egypt important? It is because of the presence of water mainly from the Jordan
River, but also because of one other reason. Notice it right at the end of
verse 10: "This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah."
This is significant.

Now, today the region
of the Dead Sea, which in ancient times was called the 'Salt Sea' (Genesis
14:3), did not in any way appear like it does today.

When you go to that
region and imagine what it might have looked like in ancient times, you really
get a feeling of what the Garden of Eden must have been like. It seems fairly
clear that the Garden of Eden was located in Southern Iraq just to the North of
where the major rivers empty into the Persian Gulf and in that area it is quite
warm most of the year. It is the same thing in this region of Jericho today. It
is a beautiful desert climate.

But what we have to
understand is that at one time before the Dead Sea came into existence in the
time of Abraham and Lot, this area was not the Dead Sea, but it was a beautiful
lake with the Jordan River feeding it.

One cannot determine
the precise dimensions of that lake and it is quite hard to say with certainty
anything about it exactly, but Genesis 13 says that region was like "the
Garden of the Lord."

Let's be clear. This
environment is one where mangoes, bananas, date palms, oranges, lemons, even
pineapple can and does grow. The dates from this region are particularly
prized. Check an artists representation of what we are talking about below.

Artists representation of the Jordan River in the time of Jesus.

Taken at the Jerusalem Natural History Museum.

When we realize also
that there was a small part of the landscape just to the north of the point
where the Jordan River entered the Dead Sea, which was known as a Savannah
landscape (called Sudanian Penetration Zone - which in technical terms means a
'mini Africa' type of landscape) which had the lion as the top of the food
chain, you get a paradisiacal environment which resembled the Garden of Eden,
which also had a great deal of wildlife in its environment.

Note: This is an icon
of St. Gerasimos, who lived very near the Jordan river some 1,500 years ago (a
monastery still occupies the spot today where he lived) and we see in the icon,
the saint caring for a lion who was his companion. That lion, named Jordan,
appears to have accompanied the saint throughout his life.

But while this is the case, let us be clear, some 20 miles to the west, some
4,200 feet above the bottom of the Jordan valley (which itself is some 1,400
feet below sea level), in Bethel, Abraham lived and the well watered plains of
the Jordan were a whole world away and had no impact on Abraham and his
lifestyle. In the hill country, the community there was totally dependent upon
springs and upon God's bountiful rains that they needed to come in due season,
because without them, life was very hard in that area because it was not well
watered.

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About Me

Samuel Martin was born in England and is the youngest child of Dr. Ernest L. and Helen R. Martin, who are both Americans. He lived in the UK for the first 7 years of his life before moving to the USA with his family at age 7. He lived in the USA until 2001 when he married a native Israeli and relocated to live in Jerusalem. He and his wife, Sonia, have 2 daughters.
His experience with biblical scholarship began at an early age. His father initiated a program in conjunction with Hebrew Univ. and Prof. Benjamin Mazar, where over a 5 year period, some 450 college students came to work on an archaeological excavation in Jerusalem starting in 1969. Since that first trip, Samuel has visited Israel on 14 different occasions living more than 5 years of his life in the country. He has toured all areas of Israel as well as worked in several archaeological excavations.
Today, he has begun his academic career publishing 2 books dealing with biblical issues.
I write regularly on biblical subjects with a particular interest in children, families, nature, science and the Bible,and gender in the Biblical context.